Reg Vardy – Timeline Fixer Extraordinaire

Here’s a little origin story for a character I’ve been messing around with. I hope you like him. This is an excerpt from his journal.

The time before:

So there I was. An infant child in a time long forgotten and a place I don’t remember. There was a council of elders and they were talking about me. I don’t remember much of what was spoken-infant child, key to saving the universe. That’s about it.

What happened next was the bit I do remember. The leader of this weird bunch took me to the edge of an active volcano, picked me up and threw me in. I thought-well I had no idea what I thought. As I fell, a strange tingling sensation came over me and suddenly, I found myself in my bedroom-at least I thought it was my room. There was nothing of mine here though.

I left this room and went downstairs to the kitchen. The house was totally familiar yet everything was different. Mum was in the kitchen making food with a man. I recognised him immediately as the guy who threw me in the volcano. Mum looked different-younger somehow. So did the man. I didn’t know it at the time but I had gone back in time roughly ten years. “mum?” I said as I walked in. She looked across the kitchen at me. her face a mixture of shock and panic. The man moved towards me. I shouted, “Stay right there mister. You just tried to throw me into a volcano.”

The man stopped. He looked like he knew who I was-who I would become. He said the words. “Go. Find me in the abbey of the fallen in the valley of the forgotten kingdoms. I will be waiting.”

I had no idea what he meant but I started tingling the minute he finished. The next thing I knew; I was in a vast hall. I could here voices-his voice. I hid in the shadows and moved towards the sound.

As I approached, I could see he was not alone. I counted thirty-nine people standing in the shape of a pentagram facing inwards towards a man, woman and a child about my age. They surrounded an altar. They were a little difficult to make out at first but, after moving a little closer and squinting a few seconds, I recognised them as the man, my mum and me.

Suddenly the man looked in my direction. It was difficult to make out if he knew I was there or not but he looked straight at me. Before anyone else noticed, he carried on the ritual. It was then I noticed the burning lava pit close to the top tip of the pentagram. The people in that section moved outward, leaving a corridor. The man picked me up over his head and threw me in. I saw a blue haze shine up through the pit amongst the reds and yellows of heat and then nothing.

I presumed that was me leaving.

The people of the pentagram left, leaving my mother and the man alone. “You can come out now?” He said. I did so and slowly moved towards them-stopping short of stepping within the pentagram.

“Reg” he said, “I am your very proud father.” I opened my mouth to speak but my mother shot me a look and I thought better of it. “You are the chosen. You are no longer bound by linear time. You can transverse the universe as you see fit. This is our gift to you. But the gift has a price and you are bound by it. There is a universal plan and we are all players. You are the custodian of this plan. If anyone attempts to change the plan in any way, even something seemingly insignificant, you will feel it. You will be able to find the moment of change and have the ability to stop it-even at this young age. From this moment, you are all knowing. You know how the universe began and how it will end. You are not god but you might as well be. You are the chosen custodian and you will be forever remembered across time and space.”

I thought over the words he said. How could this be possible. It was difficult for an eight-year-old mind to comprehend-so I thought. I tested this knowledge in my head and found he was telling the truth. I knew who he was, how he was born, where I was conceived and how he dies. “Oh.”

I left in a blue haze. As I did, the last thing I saw were my mum and dad look around as the lava pit became a geyser, shooting lava 100ft into the air. I already knew they wouldn’t survive.

And there it was, I was alone in the universe with no conduit to understanding the ‘gifts’ I’d been given. I felt my first pain in my stomach. I let it guide me to my first piece of work as custodian of the universal plan.

‘Let the fun begin’ I thought.

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2 Comments on Reg Vardy – Timeline Fixer Extraordinaire

What an interesting concept! It reads like a dream. How is he the custodian of time, making sure no one messes with time, if he is the only one who can? I was a little confused by that part. Did I misunderstand something?